Leaders at the state's children鈥檚 hospitals have said they鈥檙e worried about rising cases of COVID in kids, with nearly half of all Ohio students not required to wear masks in schools. But that鈥檚 unlikely to change unless local officials make decisions to implement their own mandates.
There won鈥檛 be a statewide mask mandate for Ohio schools, according to Gov. Mike DeWine. He said that鈥檚 not because he doesn鈥檛 want one, but because Republican legislators who have supermajorities in both the House and Senate to overturn his health orders.
鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that, they鈥檝e made it very clear that if we put a mask order on, they鈥檙e going to come out and take that off," DeWine said. "If I thought otherwise, I would certainly have taken action myself.鈥�
But Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman said his fellow Republican has read the room correctly.
鈥淚 don't think there is any push or anyone in favor, at least in the Senate Republican caucus, I shouldn't say anyone, I haven鈥檛 asked everybody, but there's very little likelihood that the Senate Republican caucus is going to support a mask mandate for public schools," Huffman said.
Huffman said schools are free to impose mandates. A third of all districts have, including the state鈥檚 largest districts, so 54% of Ohio public school students are required to be masked in class.
And though are pushing for masks in schools, Huffman said if superintendents don鈥檛 want to require masks, it鈥檚 not up to the legislature to change that.
DeWine said he鈥檚 told districts that they can institute temporary mask mandates to be removed when the surge of COVID cases in children subsides.
While some, , have called for DeWine to issue a mask mandate and then go to court over it, DeWine has said that might confuse people.
that allows the General Assembly to rescind a governor鈥檚 health order was after it passed in March, and. Only Republicans voted for the veto override, with one House Republican and two Republican Senators voted against the override.
The law, Senate Bill 22, is similar to a bill passed in the last General Assembly in December. , but the legislature before the session ended at the close of 2020.
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